In the End, it Doesn't Even Matter
by Hydrizion64
Summary: Iwaizumi, Oikawa, and Kuroo: What do they all have in common? They are all about to fall in love! But what happens when the girl Iwaizumi is falling for's life ends just a week after they began talking? Iwaizumi x OC, Kuroo x OC, minor Oikawa x OC.


: Sooo I had vowed to myself to never write a fanfic b/c I really really don't have the time. But then my friend said she'd give me 2 bucks if I wrote a fanfic where I shipped us with our favorite Haikyuu! characters, and guess who's about to be $2 richer! She said it only had to be 2,000 words, but since I can't actually write anything concisely this started getting a lot longer than that. A _lot_ longer. Oops lol.

Author's Note: this is an AU where Seijoh (Aobajosai), Nekoma and Karasuno are the Parma city high schools (one city with 3 high schools). This way they all are close to each other, which is the only way this fanfic makes sense. Everything else is pretty much the same.

Disclaimer: I don't own Haikyuu! Also, this is my first fanfic, and my major is engineering which is basically the opposite of an English major, just keep that in mind. I'm sorry if this is painful to read (sorry not sorry more like lol fite me).

Leave me reviews if you want? Don't think I'll ever write fanfic again but hey I'd still like to improve at writing if possible.

Okay have fun reading this trash.

Hajime Iwaizumi slowed his pace so that Oikawa could catch up to him. There jog had started only 15 minutes ago, and this was the third time he had to wait for Oikawa. Not because Oikawa couldn't keep up with him, no, Oikawa probably trained harder than anyone else on the team. It was simply because some girls on the other side of the street had spotted Oikawa and would yell his name, distracting him and causing him to slow down so that he could turn towards them and bask in the attention they so readily showered him with.

Iwaizumi sighed and slowed to a walk when he saw that Oikawa had come to a complete stop; this time the group they had come across contained one of the most popular girls in the school, and she too fawned over Oikawa. She really was gorgeous, and sometimes Iwaizumi questioned Oikawa's sexuality when he refused to actually get serious with any of the girls, but he has now accepted the fact that Oikawa can't give up the attention of the masses, and Iwaizumi knew the other girls would quickly lose interest in him the second he settled down. Plus, currently he only seemed to be genuinely interested in just one girl, of course it had to be the girl his advances failed on: Kiyoko Shimizu (this is a canon fact look it up I found out on a wiki page haha). Sometimes Iwaizumi wondered if it was all just a game to him.

Iwaizumi stopped and took out his headphones despite the fact that one of his favorite songs had just come up on his play list: Mr. Brightside. He took his Iphone out of the running arm strap that held it firmly to his upper right arm so that he could run while listening to his music. He contemplated for a moment when he would have time to replace the cloth holder that was starting to fall apart due to excessive use. He took his phone out of the holder, admiring for just a second the Godzilla case that protected it, and then began scrolling through his recent messages, none of which were important enough for him to respond to at that second, thanks to the fact that he couldn't get a girlfriend with Oikawa being his best friend and always stealing every girl's attention away. Not that he minded so much, he had enough to worry about at the moment with the next match of the Spring tournament quickly approaching. He needed to keep training and keep in shape and oh, that reminded him, continue jogging!

"Trashykawa, do you want to get beaten next week just because you were out of shape? Let's get going!" Iwaizumi said only half angrily. He had been around Oikawa for so long that he'd grown quite the tolerance for Oikawa's constant flirting. But sometimes, even he couldn't stand it any longer. Iwaizumi put his phone back in the haphazard cloth strap, put his ear buds back in and began jogging again.

"Coming, coming Iwa-chan." Oikawa waved goodbye to the girls, and they continued along their way.

Nearing a corner, Iwaizumi spotted in the distance Kiyoko-san walking a dog. Quickly glancing at Oikawa, he could tell that he hadn't seen her yet, because if he had he would surely be heading in her direction in order to try flirting with her again. In order to avoid crossing paths with her, Iwaizumi quickly began to steer Oikawa so that he would make a turn down a street that was not part of the route they had planned. Oikawa, not caring where they ran, noticed Iwaizumi's move and made the sharp turn around the corner so that they could head up the street Iwaizumi was directing him towards. But due to the overgrown shrubbery that ran right up to the corner of the property, both boys were unable to see the girl who was walking down that street and was just about to turn that very same corner in the opposite direction.

Iwaizumi collided with the girl sending her to the ground, luckily she was close enough to the edge of the sidewalk that she landed in the grass. In the next moment he heard two loud smacks as both his and her phone's hit the pavement.

Oikawa, being the "gentleman" he was, quickly reached out his hand and offered the girl a smile (that Iwaizumi could see wasn't very genuine) and asked if she was okay as he pulled her back to her feet. "I'm fine," she stated in monotone, and then reached down to grab her phone and Iwaizumi did the same, thankful that both devices' screens didn't crack. He quickly checked the case to make sure he had the right device, and then put it in his pocket since the shoulder strap clearly was no longer reliable.

"Sorry about that, usually we are good at noticing our surroundings" Iwaizumi explained to her as she cleaned the dirt from her shorts. "Don't worry about it, I'm fine and it was an accident" is all she said before she began her walk again, not feeling inclined to start a conversation with two guys who were clearly in the middle of a jog. Even if they weren't jogging she wouldn't have started a conversation, she wasn't one to talk to strangers and besides she was supposed to back at her house at 2 since Christine was coming over, and she did not want to be late even if they were just going to go study.

Iwaizumi looked at her for just a second longer, taking in her appearance to see if he recognized her at all. She had straight medium-short light brown hair the ended just above her shoulders, green eyes, was wearing a pink tank top and tan shorts, and was around their age. Not recognizing her as someone he's seen in the hall at school, he decided that she probably was a high schooler who went to a different school in the district.

Something was off Iwaizumi realized, why wasn't Oikawa flirting with this girl? He flirts with every and any girl their age (and some not their age), but when Iwaizumi looked to where Oikawa was just a second ago, he found that he was missing. Whipping his head in the direction he knew Kiyoko-san was coming from, he saw his best friend jogging toward the black haired beauty much to her very evident dismay.

Iwaizumi wished he had a volleyball that he could whip at that idiots head.

Hearing the front door open, Christine glanced up and saw Serina entering. She watched as Serina glanced at her then at her shorts, and headed up the stairs towards her room rather than towards where Christine was sitting in the kitchen. She came back down a moment later with her bookbag and purse in hand, and Christine noticed she changed her shorts.

"Ready to go?" Serina asked, her excitement for their destination evident. Christine couldn't believe that both Serina and her didn't know about the cat café that had opened up in Cleveland about 3 months ago. It was like everyone assumed they already knew about it and didn't feel the need to tell them, even though they were both known to be crazy cat lovers among their fellow high schoolers. Luckily Christine had overheard a conversation about it having great coffee and had screamed a little in the hallway in shock and excitement before rushing to tell Serina of its existence.

Christine grabbed her bookbag and the two got in her red half decayed 2000 Mitsubishi Eclipse and started the 20 minute drive to cat heaven.

"Wanted a more suitable pair of shorts for the cats the lay on?" Christine inquired.

"I fell during my walk and wanted to change"

"You're usually not _that_ clumsy." Her friend claimed to have no sense of balance which Christine only half believed.

"Yeah well it's only because I was turning a blind corner and ran into someone."

"Oh that sucks."

"Yeah and it caused me to drop my phone which freaked me out since I only have my Godzilla case on it right now."

"Oh instead of your Lifeproof case? But the screen didn't break?"

"Yeah it's fine."

Serina began pulling out her phone, figuring she had a few messages she needed to catch up on since she liked to ignore them during her walk and just listen to her music. But before she could even hit the home button she was distracted by Christine turning up the music since Linkin Park's In the End had come on and the two were obliged to yell the lyrics whenever they heard the song.

Walking into the cat café, both girls didn't really know what to expect. They found that it was a surprisingly large café, filled with all sorts of structures for the cats to climb and sit on, and lots of plants that were placed strategically around the café in order to give the costumers some privacy.

After picking up their ordered frappes from the counter, the two sat down at a table farther back in the restaurants and took a moment to bask in the happiness that can only be achieved when surrounded by cats. There were so many different kinds! Long fur, short fur, black, white, gray, striped, tortoiseshell, calico, speckled, some with smushed faces, some were as big as maine coons, and there was even a munchkin cat. Christine couldn't resist squealing a bit and Serina had a huge smile on her face. After petting some of the cats sitting close by, the two were satisfied and both wordlessly confirmed that this would become there number one study spot.

In the next second Christine was in study mode. She pulled out her AP chemistry textbook and binder and started to review the material that would be on Monday's exam. Serina soon followed suit after appreciating the cats for one last second, but rather than ap chem, she was studying for an upcoming exam in her Medical class.

After about a half hour, Serina was ready for a break. Glancing at Christine, who was definitely still going at it, she pulled out her phone so that she wouldn't disturb her. She clicked the home button and was very confused. Why was the lock screen a picture of the new Godzilla, the one that starred in the new Godzilla movie that had just come out in theaters this weekend, and not a picture of cat iron man (which was made by one of her favorite artists on tumblr thanks to the hype that the latest captain America movie had caused).

"Christine did you change my lock screen picture when I wasn't looking?"

"Huh? No, I don't even think I could get your phone away from you long enough to do so without you noticing."

"Then…how is this my lock screen?"

Christine looked up and studied the Godzilla pic. "Because that new movie you're dragging me and Lorraine to go see with you tomorrow inspired you to change it to that?"

"Uhhh I seriously don't remember changing it."

"Well unlock the phone and check when you saved that pic in your photos. Maybe you changed it at like 4 or 5am because you were still up for some ungodly reason and just don't remember."

Serina swiped to the right and then she knew something was seriously wrong – there was no password screen. This was not her phone.

"Yeah this isn't my phone." Now she had Christine's attention. "You serious bro" Christine said, slightly alarmed. "Yeah this phone doesn't have a password and the apps are all set up completely different than mine."

"Let me see it." Serina passed the phone to her and Christine glanced through the apps. Facebook was a good place to start. She clicked the app and went to the person's personal page.

"Hajime Iwaizumi" Christine read to Serina. "Isn't he in medical? He goes to Seijoh. He's on the volleyball team there."

Of course Christine had some information on him, she seemed to know everybody these days. Especially now that they were seniors and had been at Nekoma for nearly four years, she had gotten to know so many people; students, teachers and administrators alike.

"That name actually sounds familiar. Yeah I think he's in Pharmacy." Serina was in Allied Health, and she had only a vague knowledge of the other people in the other sections of medical. "He might have actually been in my class last year."

"How the frickle frack do you have his phone?"

"It must have been when we bumped into each other this afternoon when I was on my walk" Serina deduced, "I didn't notice because we had the same phone case and I didn't even play my music after that because I was paranoid about dropping it again and actually cracking the screen. He was jogging with some other guy and we collided when they turned a blind corner that I was on the other side of."

Christine blinked and processed this new information. They definitely needed to get Serina's phone back – and soon. It was filled with all sorts of weeb crap that could literally destroy Serina's reputation as a normal person, and her's too since Serina had so much dirt on her.

"Your phone is locked right?" Christine asked, "Well yeah" Serina responded, of course it was, there was no way she would leave that literally trash bin unlocked and accessible to the world. "As long as it went to sleep after I dropped it, it should be locked."

"Phew…Okay well let's use the 'Find my iPhone' thing, you have that right? I bet he has your phone at his house or something. Let's just drive over there and get it." Christine was slightly disappointed that they would have to cut their visit to the cat café short, but what had to done had to be done.

"Yeah okay let me get out my computer."

Christine, now calming since they had a solution to the problem, let her mind wander. So this dude and Serina had the same phone case, eh?

Christine glanced down at the phone and unlocked it. Why isn't his phone locked? Like that was really concerning, someone could really steal his phone. Deciding that he brought this invasion of privacy on himself, she clicked on his photos. Not too many selfies, he didn't seem like the selfie type anyways. A few pics were of Oikawa, clearly pics Iwaizumi did not take, which reminded her that those two were good friends. Oikawa was in Christine's AP Chem class so she was quite familiar with the very flirtatious and often childish senior from Seijoh that drove over to Nekoma in the afternoon for the class.

She scrolled through some more and found some popular memes, probably to use in iMessage chats, and some screenshotted posts from twitter of superhero stuff. So he likes superheroes, eh? Christine was liking this dude more and more. "Hey Serina, there's a bunch of pictures of superhero stuff from twitter, so he definitely he likes superheroes. And he's pretty hot, don't ya think?" Christine said as she showed Serina a selfie.

"That's not too surprising, quite a few guys do these days. And yeah he's attractive but I'm not interested in being in a relationship right now." Christine gave her an -_- look, Serina could tell what Christine was trying to do. "Don't go through his pics! That's rude."

"Yeah, yeah I'll stop." Christine said although she continued to mess around with the phone for another minute before she finally put it to sleep.

"Hey Christine, look at this" Christine got up and walked to the other side of the table so she could look at Serina's Mac's screen. The Find my iPhone app had pinpointed the location, but instead of being in a random house in Parma or Seven Hills the location was in the middle of the street, actually the middle of a highway.

"Reload the page" Serina did as instructed, and this time the iPhone had moved closer to them, it looked like Iwaizumi had the same idea and was heading here now.

"Well, looks like we don't have to leave to go get your phone if he's just gonna come to us."

"Yeah I guess."

And with that Christine got back to studying, she wanted to get this out of the way since she'd be hanging out with Serina again tomorrow, and not to do schoolwork.

About 10 minutes later Christine noticed Iwaizumi roaming around the café clearly looking for them. She called him over to their table and he exchanged phones with Serina.

"Sorry about that" he said, "I didn't even realize until I got home since we have the same phone case. You've got good taste in movies." Damn, was he flirting? He had definitely been around Oikawa too much. Not that he could deny the fact that he thought she was cute. Plus after seeing her lock screen pic was of one of his favorite superheroes, he honestly thought that she must be a cool person.

Serina made a wordless response to acknowledge the comment, but Christine wasn't about to let this conversation end just yet, especially because she was pretty sure he had just flirted with her bestie. She was already trying to think of a ship name for these two. IwaRine? SerIzume? SerJime?

Luckily Iwaizumi actually continued talking so Christine didn't have to intervene just yet, "Hey what's your name again?" he asked Serina, "Sorry I'm bad with names. I didn't recognize you earlier but now I remember you're in medical."

It wasn't surprising that Iwaizumi didn't know Serina's name, she tended to be pretty quiet in class. "Oh, I'm Serina."

"Serina, that's right! And I know you Christine." Just like everyone did lol.

"Feel free to call her Serina-chan, Iwaizumi-kun." Christine said and then wiggled her eyebrows at Serina, who was glaring at her. Iwaizumi raised his eyebrows as he observed the two amusingly.

"Haha alright, Serina-chan it is."

"Please don't call me that. Just call me Serina."

Christine just had to add in "Honestly I feel like we are all friends already, bonded by our love for superheroes and Godzilla, you can use the nickname only us besties can use: Serine rine."

"Okay well then let him use your nickname too, crisine."

Iwaizumi chuckled at the duo and then looked around. Luckily he wasn't allergic to cats or this place would be a literal death trap. He didn't really care one way or the other for the animal, he wasn't really much of an animal person at all, but he had to admit that the cats were pretty cute. "Hey what even is this place?" He asked, having not even looked at the sign when he entered the building.

Christine, being a talker, really wanted to answer but she knew this was a golden opportunity to force Serina to talk to him, so instead she ignored him and instead looked down at her phone as if she had just gotten a text. Serina gave Christine another glare because she was catching on to what she was doing, but not wanting to be rude, she said, "It's a cat café, they're pretty big in other countries, but there are only a couple in the U.S." Serina could have told him what she actually knew to be true, that really the only country they were really known to be big in was Japan, but she didn't want to say anything that would give away even a hint of her weeaboo status.

"Pretty much it's a place where you can get coffee and enjoy the company of a bunch of cats. Definitely a cool spot for us cat lovers." Christine followed up, disappointed with Serina's lack of an explanation. "Plus it's cheaper than Starbucks" Serina added in.

"Now that makes the drive worth it" Iwaizumi said only half-jokingly. He had a pretty bad addiction to Starbucks, it was one of his only guilty pleasures with the strict diet he was on during volleyball season. "Okay well I got to get going, with the spring tournament going on our team has practices even on the weekends."

"Okay, see ya."

"Bye."

And with that he took his leave, or was about to when Serina said one more thing: "Hey Iwaizumi" He had to admit, he liked that she didn't use any honorifics with his name as if they were already friends. Although he still had this fear in the back of his mind that if he tried actually talking with her he'd just lose her like every other girl he talked to to Oikawa, the damn bastard. He turned back toward them as she said "Why don't you have your phone locked? That's pretty dangerous."

"Oh I actually had just temporarily took off the password lock so that Oikawa could wake it up from sleep mode if he needed to, he was using its timer when me and Kindaichi (A/N: turnip head) were doing a mile long race. I forgot to reset the pass lock afterwards, thanks for reminding me." Iwaizumi took a second to put the lock back on his phone before he forgot again, but before doing that he looked at what apps were open. Christine was smart enough to cover her tracks but left Facebook open to make it not obvious by closing everything. "You guys didn't go through my phone, right?" Iwaizumi asked, just to make sure, even though he only saw fb open.

"Nah we wouldn't do that" Christine said with fake innocence, "besides Serina's too good of a person to let me even if I wanted to." Of course it was a lie but lying and acting it out to be the truth was one of Christine's talents, and it allowed her to get along with lots of people because she could be fake around anyone in just the right way to get them to like her. This helped her become pretty popular at school but she only had a few real friends who knew the truth: that she was a weeabo and obsessed with Pokémon.

"Okay, not like I really have anything to hide."

"Yeah you don't have to hide that you like superheroes" figuring it was best to be a little honest with him and lowkey admit that she went through his photos. "We both like them too, especially Serina, her Dad likes to collect comic books so she's really up to date with all of that" Christine was trying really hard to sell her at this point.

And it was working. "Really? That's cool. I saw that Iron Man was your background. Is he your favorite?"

"He's one of my favorites, it's hard to pick when there are so many. But I do have a favorite team, which would be the Fantastic Four."

"I really like them too" Iwaizumi said with a smile, but in the next second his face became pained as he said, "I couldn't believe how bad the latest Fantastic Four movie was though. Fox really butchered it, and all just to keep the rights to the superheroes."

"Don't even get me started. The only thing that was okay about that movie was that they didn't mess up the sibling relationship. But the rest of it was garbage."

"At least Marvel has most of their other heroes back under their ownership. And they're doing things right, Civil War was really good."

Christine tuned out after that, clearly her interventions were no longer needed. The two continued to chat, Iwaizumi pulling up an unused chair from a table close by so he could sit and talk for a minute. Christine was really liking where this was going, and it was about time that Serina got herself a boyfriend. It was about time she got herself one too she thought, sighing slightly, but her long time crush and next door neighbor would never see her that way. Whateves she was more career focused anyways, an independent weeb who didn't need no man. Just wanted a man.

Christine looked up when she saw Iwaizumi getting up, apologizing about having to cut the conversation short or else he really was going to be late for his 5 o'clock practice. Serina and her both said their goodbyes again and he took his leave.

"So what do you think of him now that you've had an actual conversation with him, and about superheroes no less?" Christine asked with a smirk on her face and while wiggling her eyebrows.

Serina just smiled and blushed a bit in response.

Oikawa was mildly concerned that Iwaizumi wasn't 15 minutes early to practice like he always was. The Seijoh gym was filled with activity: the freshmen and sophomores were finishing setting up the nets and the juniors were playing a scrimmage with some of the extra underclassmen who weren't needed to help set up.

With practice starting in just 5 minutes, he was about to call him when the gym door shot open and Iwaizumi walked in, a small smile on his face, appearing lost in thought. Someone was happy.

"Hey Iwa-chan, nice of you to join us" Oikawa said even though his friend was still technically early.

Iwaizumi simply nodded at Oikawa and went to set down his stuff. He jogged back over towards Oikawa and yelled, "Gather up everyone, let's start doing stretches."

The team all gathered up on one side of the gym and as they did the coach went over the plan for the evening practice. Even though Oikawa was captain of the team, as vice captain Iwaizumi did most of the directing besides the coaches at practices since he was more respected by the team than his best friend.

After the coach had finished explaining things, the group broke into sets of twos to do some drills. Iwaizumi paired up with Oikawa like always, and just after they started he said "Hey Oikawa, do you remember that girl I bumped into earlier when we were jogging?"

"Yeah the brunette? Isn't her name Serina?" Oikawa had a lot of facebook friends, especially female fb friends. Plus he had overheard Christine talking about the girl who he assumed was her close friend in class a couple of times.

"Yeah it is. Turns out when our phones both fell we accidently picked up the wrong ones. I didn't notice because she has the same type of phone and phone case as me. So I went to go return it to her this afternoon, and let's just say we hit it off. Unfortunately I forgot to get her number, but I sent her a fb friend re-"

"Hey who's this Serina girl? She go to our school?" Kindaichi (turnip head) interrupted, he was the next closest person to Iwaizumi and apparently could overhear their conversation.

"No she doesn't and don't even think about it Kindaichi, don't even look her up on fb" Iwaizumi said forcefully. He must be serious about her if he was getting this possessive after talking to her just once Oikawa thought.

"Anyways, Oikawa you better not flirt with her okay? I'm serious about this."

"Okay Iwa-chan, but if she flirts with me first I don't know if I'll be able to keep my promise." Iwaizumi caught the volleyball they had been passing and whipped it at Oikawa, although the violent action went unfulfilled since Oikawa reacted in time to catch it.

It wasn't his fault that he was stunningly attractive and a smooth talker. Oikawa knew that he had messed relationships up in the past for his best friend, but honestly it seemed like those girls were just using Iwaizumi to try and get with himself anyways. And he wasn't about to let his best friend be used like that, even when in the end Iwaizumi was mad at him and hurt because of him.

"Bro, don't mess this up for me."

"Iwa-chan, would I ever do such a thing?" Oikawa said with an innocent smile, Iwaizumi was really glaring at him now. But then his face softened.

"Dude she's into superheroes and likes Godzilla, I really think we would be a good fit." Wow Iwaizumi really was serious about this girl.

"Well good luck to you Iwaizumi, although your courting skills might be a bit dull. What it's been 2 years now since your last actual girlfriend?" Oikawa wasn't counting the 2 or 3 other girls that Iwaizumi was with for only about a week since Oikawa had "accidently" flirted with them and all of a sudden their interest shifted.

"And it's been what, 3 years for you?" Iwaizumi retorted. Ouch. He still had trouble with the fact that his last gf had dumped him just because he was too obsessed with volleyball. What's wrong with liking volleyball? Iwaizumi must have seen his face dampen, even though he only let it for just a second.

"Sorry I didn't mean to go there. It's just that I think things could actually work out with this girl."

Even though they were in the middle of the Spring tournament, Oikawa definitely wanted to support his best friend with this. Even he was realistic enough to know that high school volleyball wasn't going to last forever, and that there were other things in life worth pursuing. And if Iwaizumi was this serious she must be something, although he had his doubts since Iwaizumi really only had begun talking to her today, but Oikawa knew that she was in medical which he had overheard Christine saying (she was a really loud talker). And if she was friends with Christine then she probably didn't have ulterior motives, Oikawa couldn't really imagine Christine having those kinds of friends (although he was a bit suspicious of Christine because of what he overheard her saying from time to time. T. ? He must have heard wrong).

Oikawa gave a nod to show his understanding, the simple gesture getting more across to Iwaizumi than his words could, just as Kindaichi said "Yeah no promises from me until you guys are actually going out." Oikawa had to resist from bursting out laughing, this guy honestly thought that he was some big shot just because he was a sophomore who actually got time on the court. It had definitely gone to his head, especially with Seijoh's recent winning streak.

This time the volleyball Iwaizumi whipped wasn't aimed at Oikawa's head.

Serina saw Christine glance at the clock just as the Free! Eternal Summer ending song began to play. 10:30pm was what the clock read, it was already getting late for her. Her friend never wanted to stay awake past 11, even on weekends. Serina honestly didn't understand what motivated the girl to go to bed so early when she could stay up watching anime or scrolling through tumblr all night.

They had just finished watching the Free! Eternal Summer OVA because somehow Lorraine hadn't seen it yet, which was just a crime considering it was one of the best episodes in the entire series and so trashy that Serina couldn't help loving it. How were the producers able to fit almost every ship imaginable into just one episode? It was definitely a masterpiece.

"Let's watch Howl's moving castle" Lorraine suggested, repositioning herself in what was known to be Serina's younger brother Ulrik's seat in the couch made up of individual chairs. Of course they all somehow ended up at her house again, but Serina guessed it was inevitable when her living room was this size, with a TV that big, and surround sound speakers on top of that. Plus the fact that her family owned every popular movie in existence didn't help (and a lot of not so popular movies as well).

"You guys can but I want to leave by 11, so if you're gonna watch something that long I'll just leave now" Christine responded. She was already looking tired, all snuggled into her blanket in Serina's dad's spot. She would probably fall asleep if they didn't watch something that'd catch her attention.

"Uggh Christine why you gotta go to bed so early? Just stay up with us for once" Lorraine pleaded. Yeah like that was going to happen. Serina had known Christine long enough to understand that she was just more of a morning person, and wasn't going to change anytime soon.

"Maybe some other time I would be willing" was her unconvincing response, which Lorraine replied to with "you always say that" which was true, "come on just stay up until 12."

"Fine, but that's it." Lorraine smiled at her success.

"Okay so what do you guys want to watch" Serina said, getting everyone back on topic. But in the next second Christine changed the topic.

"Hey Lorraine, guess who Serina was flirting with today when we went to the cat café?" Serina knew it was coming, she was surprised Christine didn't mention it until now in fact, she must have forgotten. Well might as well get this conversation over with.

"Whaaaat? Serina was flirting with a boy?" Serina expected Lorraine's disbelieving response. She just didn't really talk to guys ever, let alone flirt with them. She was more shy in school and never really stood out in class, plus she never went out or was even dragged out since her best friends never really went out either (except for Holly, but Serina was not about to go to the kind of parties Holly went to).

"Yeah and he likes Godzilla and superheroes, it's a match made in heaven!" Christine said.

"Serina is this true?"

"I definitely did not flirt with him, we were just talking. But yeah he likes Godzilla and superheroes so I thought he was pretty cool. Plus he agreed that the latest Fantastic Four movie sucked but that the team itself is really cool. From our conversation, I could tell that he kept up with some comic books even."

"So what's his name? Do I know him? You friends with him on facebook?" Lorraine questioned rapid fire style. Uugh why did we have to talk about this? Couldn't her friends just let her be, it probably wouldn't turn into anything anyways. Besides she honestly just wanted to be friends with him.

"Hajime Iwaizumi, he goes to Seijoh so I doubt you know him Lorraine" Christine began explaining, "He comes to our school in the morning for medical though, but he's in Pharmacy not Allied Health unfortunately."

"Yeah I think I had medical with him last year now that I'm thinking about it" Serina said with a shrug, she was bad with remember both names and faces, so even though they were in the same three period class together for a year she had somehow forgotten his existence until earlier today.

"So you know what he's like?" Lorraine asked, suggesting that Serina got to know him a bit in class.

"Well he always seemed kinda quiet in class, kinda serious if I remember right. I do remember him always scoring pretty high on exams, and he was the only other person in our class besides me who got a 350 on the medical terminology exam." Huh, she was surprising herself with how much she remembered about him.

"She didn't even use honorifics with his name, went straight to calling him Iwaizumi, establishing them as already being close" Christine told Lorraine.

"Oh I didn't even realize I had done that." Serina honestly hadn't. "Can't say I'm surprised to hear that" Christine responded.

"Here's some pics Lorraine" Christine said as she showed Lorraine her phone, probably had pulled up his fb.

"He's hot! I approve Serine rine" Lorraine said as she scrolled through the pics. "He plays volleyball, just like my ex." Lorraine only had one exboyfriend, Tetsuro Kuroo, Christine's next door neighbor. Serina didn't know all the details, but she did know that the two had gone out back when we were all in middle school. The relationship only lasted a month, Lorraine claimed that she broke up with him because he just wouldn't spend any time with her since he was so busy with volleyball and his studies. But Serina knew the actual reason was because Lorraine had tried to introduce Kuroo to Kpop and he just wasn't interested in it (Christine later questioned Kuroo about it, and Serina had heard that he told her that he straight up did not like it, thought it was weird listening to songs in other languages), and that was just too big a part of Lorraine's life for her boyfriend to not also at least be neutral about it. Since then, Lorraine claimed she was only interested in Korean boys.

"Tell Lorraine what you guys talked about" Christine demanded, she probably wanted to know herself since Serina had seen her get back into study mode once her and Iwaizumi had really started talking.

"Fine, well after talking about the horrible F4 movie, we started discussing…"

After getting all the details from Serina, Christine noticed that it was already 11:40. If she left right now she could get home and in bed by 12:05, but now the conversation was taking a different turn.

"So Christine, any guy you like? Who you gonna go to Prom with?" Lorraine asked.

She couldn't care less, in fact Christine was debating asking one of the nerdy guys to go with her figuring he wouldn't have the guts to ask her and she kinda just wanted a date for the event even if she wasn't attracted to the guy.

But she was tired and she wasn't thinking straight and she always ends up feeling like sharing more info than she ever normally would when she was in this kind of state.

"Yeah there's a guy I've had a crush on for a little while"

Christine saw Lorraine's face make a ! expression. She regretted her words instantly knowing that her friends were about to pry as much info out of her as possible.

"What's his name?"

"I don't want to say" Christine said as she hid in her blanket a bit, embarrassed about admitting it. Plus she really couldn't say it in front of Lorraine.

"Do we know him?" Aaaand now they were playing 20 questions.

"Maybe, he goes to our school."

"Is he in our grade?" Oh great, now Serina was joining in the questioning. Well she might as well give her friends a little information to stew over since she wasn't going to say his name.

"Um, yeah he is."

"Calculator Adam. He moved in right next door to you, it's gotta be fate." Well that wasn't a bad guess. The nerdy kid had moved in at the beginning of junior year right next door to Christine, and although they had become fast friends that's all there was to it. "Nope."

"Really? But you're both so nerdy and would be really cute together." And the whole school thought the same thing, which just weirded Christine out. But he honestly wasn't her type.

"Sorry but that's not who, although I might ask Adam to prom just so I can have a date because I can never see it actually working out with the guy I like." She just didn't have the guts to confess, and honestly she couldn't see him seeing her that way. She had come to some level of acceptance of this fact, but still had trouble getting over her crush on him especially with how often she saw him.

"Nooo don't give up just like that, you haven't even told us his name! We might know more than you." Unlikely. But it was encouraging to hear her friends say that, as if Christine should still have hope.

"What does he look like?" Now describing him would be a dead giveaway. No one had hair quite like him. Was it emo? Was it jockish? Was it just plain bedhead?

"Naah it doesn't matter guys just drop it" Christine said as she stood up, collecting up her things a bit.

"Come ooon, tell us his name."

"Nah."

"Bro," Lorraine said with an annoyed tone, Christine could be stubborn. "Just tell us his name, why do you care if we know?" She only cared because he was Lorraine's ex, and she really didn't want to threaten her friendship over a boy. Chicks before dicks! Hoes before bros! Uteruses before duderuses!

"What do we have to do to get you to tell us?" Lorraine asked, looking a bit more desperate since Christine was standing and had just looked at the clock which read 11:50.

"Uuum" Christine mulled it over for just a sec, and then her tired brain said "Promise you won't get mad."

"Get mad?"

"Mad?"

The two responded in confusion. "Who could you possibly like that would make either of us mad?" Serina questioned, "Iwaizumi?"

"Nope definitely not my type. Plus I ship him and Serina."

"Hmmm. Someone one of us would be mad about." Lorraine said with a contemplative look. "Ben?"

"Heck no"

"Jacob?" Serina pitched in.

"That's a stretch."

"Oh my god I know who it is, or at least I have a pretty good guess" Christine's anxiety spiked, did Lorraine really know?

"Is he your next door neighbor?" F***. Christine should have known they'd guess eventually. But she chose lying rather than admitting, she really was worried and didn't want to have to pick between him and Lorraine.

"-nah" Dang it, she had hesitated.

"Oh my god you thought I'd be mad. Dude we broke up 4 years ago I'm so over that plus honestly it was never gonna work out. But yeah I'm over that and I don't see him that way at all anymore. It's fine girl go for it!"

"Wait really?" Dang was that a trap? Because if so it worked.

"Haha oh my god I was right!" Lorraine proclaimed, happy about her success. Was she really not mad?

"Yeah I've liked him for a while know...and I hate myself everyday for it because he can be a really annoying jerk."

"I bet driving him to school was nice" Lorraine said while wiggling her eyebrows.

"I'm not gonna deny it, it was nice having a reason to talk to him and see him every morning and after school a lot too. But I'm pretty sure his car's gonna be fixed soon." She had been driving him because his car had broken down when...he was racing her. It just was a spur of the moment kind of thing. She had been driving home from a con in Columbus, and he was coming back from an away volleyball game in the same area. After counting to make sure she had passed all of the state troopers that should statistically be the last state trooper, since Christine was not one to speed without knowing that her chance of getting a ticket was minimal, Christine comfortably decided she could speed the rest of the way home. But when she saw Kuroo's red mustang up ahead, she slowed and confirmed that it really was, and found that Kenma was also in the car. After exchanging glances, they both knew what was about to take place. Christine was driving her Mitsubishi Eclipse, and wasn't sure if the 14 year old car could handle going over 95mph, but she was willing to find out. So she beeped to signify the start of the race and slammed the gas petal. Her car took off but Kuroo quickly caught up, speeding up so he could get around the car he was previously driving behind. They got to a mostly empty stretch of highway and he got back in the middle lane so he could try to pass her and they both started really testing the limits of their vehicles. They were both going around 110mph, when all of a sudden Kuroo lost major speed. His engine had overheated and some white smoke was coming from beneath the hood of his car. After both parties had pulled over on the side of the highway, Kuroo opened the hood of his car and quickly confirmed what the white smoke had already hinted at- radiator problem. He was able to get his car home that day by duct taping the hose that had blown and using extra water he had brought for his match as temporary radiator fluid. Unfortunately, to keep the car from overheating again he had to blast the heat all the way back and of course it had to be one of those freak hot days in March that Ohio seemed to get every year: It was in the mid 80s. Kenma ended up coming in Christine's car and sat next to the still sleeping Lorraine playing his DS all the way back. They got the car home but Kuroo was pretty pissed that it was going to have to go to the shop, so Christine offered to give him rides to and from school until it was fixed since she felt partially responsible.

"Okay well now that you know who I like, what about you Lorraine?" No way was Christine leaving until she got something juicy out of Lorraine. Serina pitched in a "Yeah Lorraine" in support.

"Eeeh I'm telling you guys, I'm still only interested in Korean boys." That Ktrash. Still only thinking about her Kpop groups.

"Really no one? Who you gonna go to prom with?"

"I'll find someone. There has got to be at least one Korean guy in our area."

Christine laughed at Lorraine's determination. She glance up at the clock and saw that it was already past midnight, and since the conversation had lulled she figured this was aa good time as any to take her leave.

"I'm gonna head out, see you guys tomorrow."

"Okay, good night"

"Goodnight!"

She drove home and found that her parents had left the light on for her. The back door to the house had been left unlocked since one of her cats was out on the back porch, ready to come in for the evening. And he wasn't the only one.

A pure black cat sat next to her pure white cat. The black cat had medium long fur, while her white cat had medium short. This cat was someone's in the neighborhood, that's all Christine knew, it definitely had to be domesticated with how nice it was around people. She had taken a liking to the cat ever since she first saw her about a year ago, and would feed it some catnip when she was giving her own cats some when she saw her around. She was a very friendly little gal and would come and rub against her legs, and would even come over sometimes in the evening to sleep in Christine's bed for the night. She would always let her out when she got up early the next day in hopes that she would go home to her real owner before they began to worry.

"Smudge, Cockroach, come on inside!" And with that the two bounded in the house. The reason behind naming the black stray Cockroach was because she had met a black cat with a similar personality with that name while volunteering at the Animal Protection League. She thought it was the funniest name she had come across yet, and had wanted to adopt the kitty but her dad would not allow it. But now she had this little kitty to fill her spot, even if it was only part-time.

Both cats wandered towards her room as she quickly got ready for bed, and once she jumped in they curled up on either side of her and the three quickly fell into a deep sleep.


End file.
